the presidential palace today. jim joins us now on the telephone. >> well, those tense of thousands of anti-government protesters who did the marching on the presidential palace were initially met by riot police who blocked off all approaches to the symbolic seat of power, the palace. these protester were calling loudly for an end to president morsi's decrees. we know they've given him near absolute power. they also call for a cancelling of that snap referendum that he's called for to ratify a draft constitution, which many critics here are saying favors egypt's islamists. at one point, the police were seen firing tear gas into the crowd, but that backfired when some protesters broke through police lines. police then dropped back, regrouped, and order soon returned. eventually morsi's motorcade was seen leaving the palace. then the police slowly left the area as well, leaving it to a lot of baffled protesters, wondering what to do. many of them went home at that point. maria, the opposition calmed this protest a last warning. it may give them a shot in the arm. they did look good tonight and looked li

for the economy. we can make the government use the taxpayers' money more efficiently, lock in some spending savings and do some long-term entitlement reforms to make sure americans feel like they can retire with dignity. >> i want to make sure we're talking about apples and apples here, which is so hard in this discussion. the $800 billion which the republicans put forward, which would be a cap on deductions, how does that compare with how far the information is prepared to go when it comes to raising revenue from capping deductions? >> we don't actually know what the republicans think they can do in that context yet, because they haven't told us how they would propose to raise the $800 billion. we don't know whose taxes would go up. we don't know the mixes of rates and limitations they would support. we think there's a good case as part of an agreement alongside a tax increase on the wealthiest 2% of americans. we think with that mix of rates and deductions, we can reach agreement on something that's very good for the country. >> do you have a number? is there a number that the administrat

moving to a different inflation adjustment for social security and other government programs. they also talk about reform of medicare to include private sector competition with a traditional fee for service medicare plan. all of those are things that are within the zone of discussion that both -- between the two of the parties. now, president obama went on twitter this afternoon, took questions from the public to try to build pressure on republicans. he got one question from an average person saying, well, will my mortgage interest deduction be threatened by these fiscal cliff talks? and the president used that as a lever to say, that's why rates have to go up, because if they don't, they're going to sister to squeeze middle class deductions. that's the president trying to put pressure on. but i think now that we have offers on paper from both sides, there at least is a prospect we'll have more serious bargaining in the days ahead. >> yes. and that is good news. thank you so much, john harwood with the latest there. more now on the fiscal cliff. one of the industries with the most at st

taxpayer or any group of people who depend on government spending can be exempted from the serious problem that we have that's caused by this deficit is a mistake. everybody is going to have to pay for this. >> dawn, right or wrong, the defense industry has this reputation of being bloated, overcharging. are we at a point where we could afford to make cuts in defense spending to try and satisfy the needs of lowering the deficit in this country? >> you know, the real issue we've already seen through the budget control act, the defense has already witnessed significant cuts. i think when you're looking at the resolution here, resolving the negotiations so we don't go to the fiscal cliff, the real issue is everybody's got to participate. it's got to be a balanced approach. last monday -- well, earlier this week, 130 ceos in the aerospace defense industry sent a letter to the president saying we're urging a bipart son approach to this. it's got to be balanced. nobody is saying that defense isn't going to share in that. right now, sequestration, $600 billion, that's not a fair share. >> can i p

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